U.S. Customs wants to start collecting social media accounts for foreign travelers

The proposal would add an optional question to Customs forms asking for social media accounts. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Welcome to America — what's your Twitter handle?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection wants to start collecting the social media accounts for foreign travels entering or leaving the country, to help the agency scour for what it calls "possible nefarious activity and connections."

The forms would then leave blank spaces for travelers to fill in their user names. Under the proposal, this question would appear on arrival/departure papers for non-citizens at the border, and on the electronic forms for travelers entering America on a visa waiver.

The social media snooping, the agency said, would add a new level of scrutiny to potential visitors.

"Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case," the proposal said.

The proposal follows international calls for stronger social media scrutiny after attacks from terrorists who were radicalized online. (DADO RUVIC/Reuters)

But the plan does not specify how exactly Customs would screen the screen names.

The screening process currently includes several database checks, as well as interviews and fingerprinting.

The proposal allows the public 60 days to comment on the plan — by writing to the agency's Washington, D.C. office — before it is formally considered.

The motion comes after officials worldwide have called for stronger social media surveillance in an age of global terrorism.

After the ISIS attacks in Paris last November — which terrorists planned through encrypted chats — the FBI, NYPD and the French government demanded better oversight on online extremism. Those calls were echoed after the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando — both committed by militants who were radicalized online.